President Yoon Suk-yeol held a three-way summit on Wednesday with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain. It was the first trilateral summit since September of 2017. The three leaders agreed to a combined response to No...

Applicants for government jobs in their 20s and 30s are dwindling as the civil service, long considered a lifelong safe haven by risk-averse young Koreans, loses its luster. Another factor is that there are simply fewer young people than there used to be, but jobseekers say the benefits of public-se...

The U.S. Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday claimed North Korea has enough material to make more than 100 nuclear weapons."The North Korean regime possesses the know-how to produce nuclear bombs with weapons-grade uranium or plutonium," the CFR said in a report. "North Korea could have the mate...

Daily new COVID cases have risen above 10,000 again after lockdown was mostly lifted last month. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, new infections reached 10,463 early Wednesday, rising above 10,000 for the first time since June 9, but fell slightly to 9,595 on Thursday mo...

Seoul has tied with Munich for second place among the world's best cities for students. Hyper-expensive, post-Brexit London nonetheless topped the list.The Best Student Cities rankings by the U.K.'s Quacquarelli Symonds on Wednesday evaluated 140 cities that are home to 1,300 universities from the Q...

Korea's first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine has been given the green light for use here, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday. SKYCovione or GBP510 was developed by SK Bioscience and the University of Washington's Institute for Protein Design.Korea now has both a COVID treatment with Cel...

The Minimum Wage Commission in a hard-fought compromise Wednesday decided to raise the base pay by five percent to W9,620 next year (US$1=W1,299). The decision was made within the legal time limit for the first time in eight years. Labor representatives had demanded a 10-percent increase while emplo...

The annual Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival will kick off its 11-day run next week.With the coronavirus pandemic still lingering, the festival will run both online and offline, like last year, from June 7 through 17.A total of 268 films from 49 countries will be screened at outdoor and ...

Hyundai has released images offering a glimpse of its new all-electric vehicle, the Ioniq 6.The second model in the automaker's Ioniq all-electric lineup comes a little more than a year after the first Ioniq 5 was released in April last year.It will be unveiled at the Busan Motor Show, which opens o...

RM, the leader of popular boy band Bangtan Boys, also known as BTS, said he hopes to open an exhibition space in Korea featuring his private art collection.In the latest episode of Art Basel's podcast hosted by Marc Spiegler and released on Tuesday, RM talked about his passion for art and museums.&n...

President Yoon Suk-yeol met with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of a summit of NATO countries in Madrid, Spain on Wednesday. It was the first three-way summit in almost five years. They saw eye to eye on the gravity of North Korea's nuclear and mi...

South Korea on Wednesday marked the 20th anniversary of a deadly naval skirmish near Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea.On June 29, 2002, North Korean patrol boats crossed the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, and opened fire on a South Korean frigate, starting a battle that killed s...

Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China's rule, the United States and Britain joined other democracies urging Beijing to honor its commitments to ensure autonomy and freedoms to the former British colony.Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend events marking the ...

At least some U.S. adults may get updated COVID-19 shots this fall, as government advisers voted Tuesday that it's time to tweak booster doses to better match the most recent virus variants. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration wrestled with how to modify doses now when there's no way to kno...

R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for using his R&B superstardom to subject young fans to systematic sexual abuse.U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly imposed the sentence at a courthouse in Brooklyn. The sentence capped a slow-motion fall for the singer-songwriter, 55. He remained a...

NATO ally Turkey lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden's bid to join the Western alliance on Tuesday after the three nations agreed to protect each other's security, ending a weeks-long drama that tested allied unity against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.The breakthrough came after four hours of ta...

NATO heads of state and government meeting in Madrid on Wednesday approved a new Strategic Concept for the alliance, naming "Russia's aggression," "systemic challenges posed by the People's Republic of China" and the "deepening strategic partnership" between the two countries as its main priorities....

To prevent clothes from getting damp, recycle silica gel packets from food packages and place them in the wardrobe.

LG Energy Solution is reconsidering plans to build a W1.7 trillion rechargeable battery plant in the U.S. state of Arizona (US$1=W1,283). The plans, announced with much fanfare, now look hasty as rising inflation is expected to push up investment costs while demand for electric cars will decrease in...

Korea's greenhouse gas emissions increased 3.5 percent in 2021 even though the country promised to slash its carbon footprint dramatically. The main reason seems to have been a gradual uptick in transportation and factory operation as the country got over the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. But a...

Half of Korean households will consist of elderly people by 2015, Statistics Korea said in a revised projection Tuesday.The country already began a natural population decline two years ago, and the number of smaller and smaller households will peak at 23.87 million in 2039 before it also shrinks.By ...

Ailing SUV maker Ssangyong has finally found a new owner. The Seoul Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to a consortium led by KG Group to buy Ssangyong for W335.5 billion (US$1=W1,283). Established in 1985 as a fertilizer maker, KG Group is only Korea's 71st-largest conglomerate with asse...

Former President Lee Myung-bak was furloughed from prison for three months on Tuesday on health grounds after a year and seven months behind bars. He has been serving a 17-year prison sentence for corruption and embezzlement in office. The Suwon District Court suspended the prison sentence...

Midfielder Ji So-yun was included among the world's 50 best female footballers in a ranking by ESPN on Monday. Ji came 25th in the ranking, which was voted on by "26 of the brightest minds in women's soccer -- from coaches to executives to journalists -- about their standout performers."Ji wrap...

Korean Air said Tuesday it plans to restore its international flights to 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels by September, three months earlier than initially planned.The carrier is currently operating one-third the number of international flights it offered before the outbreak of the coronavirus pand...

A mural of Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min was unveiled on the external wall of a building in Stoneleigh, London earlier this week."An incredible mural from GnasherMurals going up today of a certain Tottenham star," Spurs' fan page The Spurs Web tweeted on Monday.Painted by graffiti artist G...

Three out of 10 adults under 50 still live with their parents even though the traditional extended family has disappeared from Korea.That is a substantial majority of unmarried adults. They find it difficult to move out because of trouble finding jobs and sky-high housing costs.The figures come from...

President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Madrid on Tuesday on the eve of a summit of the Atlantic security pact.Yoon promised US$100 million worth of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and agreed to form a new partnership with NATO."Korea and the NATO ag...

NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has successfully completed its first rocket launch from a commercial space facility outside of the United States. A 13-m rocket blasted off Monday from a site in the Australian outback.A 13-m sub-orbital rocket took off from the newly built Ar...

Russia targeted more Ukrainian civilian sites with missiles on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials reported, a day after a deadly strike on a shopping center in the city of Kremenchuk that killed at least 18 people.The new Russian attacks killed at least eight civilians, the officials said, in strikes on t...

Greece is set to further seal its land frontiers with rival neighbor Turkey, tripling the length of a soaring fence built to block illegal migrants trying to enter. The plan comes as Greece faces a sudden surge in refugees, both along its land and sea frontiers, as relations with its age-old foe det...

President Joe Biden's administration added five companies in China to a trade blacklist on Tuesday for allegedly supporting Russia's military and defense industrial base, flexing its muscle to enforce sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.The Commerce Department, which oversees the t...

Fifty people have died after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer in the sweltering Texas heat, one of the worst tragedies to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico to the U.S. More than a dozen people had been taken to hospitals, including four children.A city worker hea...

To save the house from bugs, throw out delivery boxes immediately.

Couples living close to nature have a higher chance of pregnancy than ones living in built-up cities, a study suggests. Jeong Hye-gyeong and Choe Seung-ah at Korea University's Anam Hospital studied 500 couples who had tried for a child for over a year and found that couples who lived close to natur...

U.S. Representative Christopher Smith is demanding a "thorough audit" of the hasty repatriation of North Korean fishermen who washed up in South Korea in 2019. Smith has convened a hearing of the House of Representatives' Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on the issue of North Korean defectors.Shin...

Star golfer Lydia Ko is tying the knot this winter with Hyundai heir Chung Jun, the son of Hyundai Card vice chairman Chung Tae-young. The couple began dating two years ago, and in August last year, Ko posted a selfie with Jun captioned "soon" and a love emoji on Instagram.Ko was born in Seoul but m...

Tottenham Hotspur forward Song Heung-min is the most valuable Asian footballer and way ahead of any other players from the continent. On football market website Transfermarkt's list of valuable players in Asia on Sunday, Son came top with a value of 75 million euros.He scored 23 goals this season in...

Singer and actress Jang Na-ra has expressed gratitude to fans for their blessings and messages of encouragement after her wedding on Sunday.The wedding took place under tight security at the Bonelli Garden in Seoul with only the couple's closest friends and family members in attendance. "Thank you f...

Korea has the highest employment rate for people over 65. That may either be a positive sign attesting to the physical and mental ability of elderly people to work or reflect the sad reality that they have to find menial or part-time jobs to make ends meet.Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Monday quot...

Shinsegae has been ranked seventh among Asia's top 100 retailers in terms of sales.According to an annual report by Euromonitor International released last week, the Korean retail giant moved up two spots from last year to seventh with sales of US$48.91 billion, becoming the only Korean retailer to ...

Koreans' chronic reluctance to have children is spreading to multicultural couples, who have typically been more fertile. According to a 2021 survey of 15,578 mixed-race couples released by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on Monday, the proportion of those who had no children grew from 33...

Korea's first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine is going through the final stage of approval. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Monday said a review committee has preliminarily approved SKYCovione (or GBP510) by SK Bioscience, and a final review session this week is expected to give it the green ligh...